One Family Goes John Galt

He hunts deer and turkeys. Instead of buying books and going to movies, they visit the library weekly. For Christmas, they got canning gear so they can preserve the food they grow.

"The earn, spend, earn era has come to an end for us," he says on truenorthfound.blogspot.com, their blog. "The idea of living a fuller, more satisfying life seems simple to us now. ... Money, cash, credit, maybe they don't matter. Maybe, just maybe, it is those things that impede our ability to be truly happy."...They stopped using credit cards and they're trying to build up savings. "I'm working harder than ever," Patrick says, "but it's more satisfying work and ... it's much easier to sleep at night." _USAToday

It seems to be easy for tenured government-dependent clowns and incompetents to laugh at the "flyover country fools" who actually work for a living, obey the rules, and pay their taxes on April 15 -- so the tenured clowns can live it up and laugh at the "tea baggers." But mainstream freeloaders of one corrupt bureaucracy or another should have been paying attention instead of just laughing at the protestors. The people holding those signs are ordinary people who never considered protesting until now. Something drove them to that point of decision. And now they are considering a lot more options than simple protest. Many of them are considering cutting back on their economic activity. Cutting waaaaaaayyy back! As in John Galt back. Call it the "Obama effect."

Hard times are creating economic survivalists such as the Wojtowicz family who are paring expenses by becoming more self-sufficient.

Reviving "almost lost" skills and preparing for tough days make people feel more in control, says Charlotte Richert, consumer sciences educator for Oklahoma State University's Extension Service in Tulsa County.

Karen Gulliver, MBA program chair at Argosy University in Eagan, Minn., expects the movement to grow as the sour economy forces people to reassess priorities. People are asking, "Do I really want to be 100% vulnerable with no self-sufficiency skills if something happens?" she says.

Some signs of the trend:

•Stockpiling. When the stock market drops, orders surge for freeze-dried food, survival kits and emergency supplies, says Nitro-Pak president Harry Weyandt. One best seller: a $3,375 food reserve that feeds four people for three months.

•Gardening. Sales of vegetable seeds and transplants are up 30% from 2008 at W. Atlee Burpee, the USA's largest seed company. The National Gardening Association says 7 million more households will grow food this year than in 2008 — a 19% rise. A book on building root cellars is the top seller at Johnny's Selected Seeds in Winslow, Maine, supervisor Joann Matuzas says.

•Canning. Jarden Corp. says sales of its Ball and Kerr canning and preserving products are up more than 30% from 2008. Sonya Staffan, owner of The Jam and Jelly Lady commercial cannery in Lebanon, Ohio, is offering twice as many classes this year.

•Sewing. More people are learning to sew so they can mend clothes and make home décor, says Rachel Cohen, spokeswoman for SVP Worldwide, owner of sewing-products makers Singer and Husqvarna Viking.

•Relocating. Steve Saltman, general manager of LandAndFarm.com, a national real estate company, says more customers want to "live simply in a less-expensive place." Jonathan Rawles of SurvivalRealty.com says more people moving to rural areas "are specifically worried about economic and social instability." _USAT

This is gradual self-extraction from the mainstream economy. A form of stealth "John Galt-ing" that is unlikely to be broadly noticed until it has penetrated deeply into the productive population. There will be many levels of economic dropping-out before this Obama depression runs its course, and before much of the freeloading class is unceremoniously dumped on their asses. Obama himself -- and a large proportion of his zombie horde -- lacks the personal heft to ever comprehend what is happening. His brain-rotted following is quite large, so a rapid return to sanity is unlikely.

But if those who can, won't (at least not in the open where the tax collectors can see), eventually those who can't are going to have to either make concessions or do without. Interesting times. There are limits to what government borrowing, lightspeed printing presses, and Obamanamanomics can do when the wheels of commerce are starting to fall off the machine.